


Best Wishes

by mosylu



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Birthday, F/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 05:22:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mosylu/pseuds/mosylu
Summary: Two months after the particle accelerator explosion, Cisco and Caitlin are still struggling through their days. But just because most things suck doesn't mean everything has to, and Caitlin has a surprise for him.





	Best Wishes

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt "Close your eyes and hold out your hands" from Shasta627 on Tumblr

A thump out in the cortex jolted Cisco to wakefulness. He blinked once or twice and shook his head hard. He’d dozed off over his table. That was a bad habit. He should stop that. “Hello,” he called out. “Who’s out there?”

“It’s me.”

“Caitlin?” he said in surprise. “I thought you went home.” She’d packed up an hour ago, making noises about getting to bed early. He’d felt pretty sure he wouldn’t see her until well into the next day, but here she was.

She came up into his lab. It took him a moment to realize what was different about her: she was smiling.

Awkwardly, self-consciously. It even looked a little forced. But she was actually smiling, for the first time since Ronnie’s funeral, it seemed like. Two months of that blank expression and he’d gotten way too used to it.

“Hey,” he said uncertainly. “Hi. You forget something? Is coma guy awake? What’s up?”

“I - um.” She shifted her weight.

“What is it?”

She bit her lip. “Close your eyes and hold out your hands,” she said.

His brows shot up. “Look, I had an older brother, and I went through elementary school, too. Nothing good ever comes from a statement like that.”

“Well, this time it will,” she said, sounding a little more like her usual self. “Just do it.”

He considered whether she was the type to play some nasty trick on him. Especially since all they had was each other. Wells was remote and distracted. Coma guy was … in a coma. There were days when Caitlin’s face was the only one he saw, and the same for her.

He decided to trust her.

Something soft and weighty and sweet-smelling settled on his palms, and her hands cupped his. “Okay,” she said. “you can open your eyes.”

He did, and felt his jaw drop.

It was a cupcake. One of the fat red velvet ones from the awesome bakery three streets over from her apartment, with sprinkles on the top and a single skinny birthday candle stuck into the chocolate frosting.

“Happy birthday, Cisco.”

“What? It’s not - ” He thought. “What day is it?”

“The fourteenth of January,” she said, pointing at the clock and date on a nearby monitor. “You’re twenty-three years old.”

“Uh,” he said. “Wow. That - I can’t believe you remembered.”

She shrugged a half-shrug. “I put it in my phone last year.”

Last year. Last year, Ronnie had gathered everyone he could snag - including Caitlin, of course - and taken Cisco out for a raucous dinner and bar hopping. A hole gaped wide in his heart for the friend who wasn’t here anymore.

He looked up and could tell she was feeling the same way.

She forced a smile again. “I noticed on my way home and I figured you were probably still here, so I went to Cameron’s.”

His eyes burned and his throat went thick. He’d forgotten it was even coming up. Days just blurred together now. Maybe that was why his mama had called around lunchtime, and his godfather later on, and even Dante had texted him something he hadn’t bothered reading.

He’d just figured he’d missed some important moment of Dante’s glittering life and was getting yelled at.

Maybe he had. Whatever. He’d wait until tomorrow to listen.

Her smile had seeped away, like rainwater into concrete. “Do you like it?”

“This is amazing,” he said. “Caitlin. Wow. Thank you.” He set the cupcake down on his table and hugged her. She hugged him back - another rarity these days.

She let him go quickly and said, “You have to light it. And we have to sing.”

He found a tiny butane torch and lit the candle. He pursed his lips and she slapped her hand over his mouth. “Not yet!”

He smiled against her palm as she sang “Happy Birthday” off-key and wobbly, but gamely. She didn’t drop her hand until she’d warbled the last note, two or three pitches away from where she’d started. “Make a wish,” she said then.

So many wishes. So many.

He thought, _I want things to get better,_ and blew out the candle. Together, they watched the thin thread of smoke tendril up from the wick and disappear.

“Got a knife?” he said.

“Why?”

“Well, unless you want to pass this back and forth, trading bites and spit - ”

“Cisco! That’s your birthday cupcake.”

“Exactly. Birthday cake is meant to be shared. Knife?”

She looked like she would protest again, but the red velvet cupcakes from Cameron’s were really, really good. She rummaged around his desk, found some packages of plastic takeout utensils, and ripped one open for the knife.

He cut the cupcake in half and even found paper towels to put the two halves on. They ate standing up over his lab table, going, _Oh my god,_ and _So good, how are these so good, what does he put in them?_

She smiled at him again, and it looked actually real this time, not forced. He wasn’t going to say anything stupid and schmoopy in his head like, it was the best birthday present he’d ever gotten.

But, you know. It was up there.

FINIS


End file.
